


from the tallest tower

by kathoo



Category: New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Alternate Universe - Royalty, F/F, Knight Kokichi, Knight Miu, M/M, Marriage Proposal, Multi, Prince Shuichi, Princess Kaede, like rapunzel except minus the long hair, theyre both bi but theyre gay for their knights
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-03
Updated: 2018-05-03
Packaged: 2019-05-01 11:34:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,266
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14519640
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kathoo/pseuds/kathoo
Summary: "Well,” she began, “Mr. Hero… You’ve successfully gotten up here. I think it’s time for you bring me back down. I’m really grateful, by the way. I thought I’d be trapped up here until I died of dehydration…” She was finally leaving this awful tower. She couldn’t bare another minute of a place so uncomfortable and cold.After a moment of silence, she continued, “You… You do know how to get down from here, right, Saihara-kun?”Shuichi rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. “I don’t know. I didn’t think I’d get this far…”“You’re kidding,” she deadpanned..The prince tries and fails to save the princess, and both of their knights come to the rescue.





	from the tallest tower

Kaede Akamatsu, the gorgeous princess who all her subjects looked up to and trusted, was currently trapped inside a tower.

She didn’t really have any idea how she got there. She had fallen asleep the prior night, and when she awoke, she was on the a cold stone floor. There was absolutely nothing the room at all; not a single thing that she could sit on, mess around with, or use for escape. However, there was one, single window that showed her the vast view of the fields and shrubs that surrounded her. She could see her castle in the distance- she couldn’t be too far off from her kingdom. But, who had brought her here? And what did they want?

She had tried and failed to climb out of the window several times. She couldn’t get a sturdy enough grip on the stones, and she didn’t want to risk falling to her death, so she climbed back up quickly every time. How was she going to leave a place as impossible escape as this?  
  
Her kingdom would come looking for her, though. Someone would. No one would overlook a princess gone missing, right?  
  
Right?  
  
She felt like she was driving herself crazy with all the thoughts circling inside her head. It’d only been a few hours at most, and she already felt herself slowly going insane. _I don’t even know what that would feel like, but somehow it seems like the right way to describe it. Why in the world would someone want to trap me in a tower? Are they holding me for ransom?_

The bigger question was how they even managed to capture her in the first place. She had the royal guard surrounding the castle, and there were a few of them near her door at all times. They were well-trained and alert- so how did her captor manage to bring her to a tower like this? And not to mention, how did they get in? Or out? She’d really, really like to know right now.

And not to mention… there was Miu. Miu Iruma, the head of the royal guard. She was the best that Kaede had ever seen, and she’d seen her fair share of knights duking it out. She was… incredible. She could kill anyone with a flick of her wrist, and despite her vulgar attitude, everything about her radiated grace. It was highly possible that Kaede was the only one who thought that way, but it was true, even it was just to her.

Miu was never far off from where she was… It only raised the question once more: How could whoever had done this… done this?

Minutes came upon minutes came upon minutes. She couldn’t bare the silence of it all. There had been a few times when she called out, “Hello? Anybody there?” and, “Please, let me out!”, but it was all in vain. Nothing was happened, and she was beginning to believe that nothing was going to happen. She was usually optimistic, but in a situation like this…

“Hello?” a voice called from outside of the tower, and she rushed over to the window. There was a boy standing there who was around her age wearing all black. Was he hear to save her? Upon seeing her at the window, he continued, “You’re Kaede Akamatsu, right? The missing princess.”  
  
Kaede raised an eyebrow. “I’ve been gone for like… three hours. Are they already calling me ‘the missing princess’?”

The boy fidgeted in his spot a little bit. “Ah… Well, you know. News passes around fast. Anyway… I’m here to save you. I think. Don’t quote me on that when I end up failing horribly.”  
  
Huh? Kaede had never mean someone so self-deprecating upon first meeting them. Who was this boy, anyway? Was he looking for fame? She peered in closer to get a better look at the boy, before quickly recognizing the boy from portraits and posters. “You… You’re Shuichi Saihara, aren’t you? The prince of our neighboring kingdom?”  
  
Kaede couldn’t see him clearly, but she could’ve sworn that he flushed. “Y-Yeah… I’m going to try and help you, now.”  
  
Kaede shook her head. “Don’t bother. I tried it myself, it’s impossible to- ...climb…” Her words were cut short as Shuichi effortlessly grabbed onto a very small stone and began to climb the tower, grasping onto the very narrow leverage that the stones provided. A climb like that should’ve been absolutely impossible- the stones were just too well put together.

When he reached the top, Kaede could do nothing but gape at him. He didn’t seem very muscular at all- in fact, he was rather skinny. “H-How…?” she stuttered.

He shrugged. “My kingdom’s terrain is filled with mountains, and my uncle was intent on making sure I knew how to climb. It’s one of the few things I’m really good at. I suppose it came in handy, though, didn’t it?”  
  
“Uncle?” she echoed. “Oh, yeah. Your parents… Oh! I’m so, so sorry! That’s probably a super sensitive topic for you, and to hear someone you don’t even know bring it up…”

“No, no.” Shuichi shook his head. “They abandoned the kingdom long ago. I barely even knew them, anyway. I’m not going to start crying over strangers.” He was very obviously attempting to keep his voice strong, but it cracked when he reached the last words. She felt pity overwhelm her.

“I’m sorry for bringing it up,” she apologized. “That was really rude.” She needed to change the subject, and fast. “Um… You must’ve spent a lot of time climbing to climb something like that, though.”  
  
“Yeah,” he agreed, fully recovered. He was standing so close to the window that she was afraid he might fall, but he seemed to be fully balanced. “This is the first time I’ve climbed in a long time, though. It was kind of refreshing. Maybe when I go back I’ll start doing it again.”

“How did you know where to find me?” she asked.

“A mage,” he told her. “She had red hair. Her and her… erm, assistant, found me. They told me where you were and everything. At first I didn’t believe them, but the assistant was insistent, and I was kind of afraid of her, so I decided to find out if they were right or not. Before my uncle kicked them out of the castle for trespassing, of course.”  
  
“All alone?” she inquired, eyebrows furrowed. “That’s really dangerous. You’re a prince, I’m sure anyone would jump at the chance to take you, too. And- when I say no offense, I really mean it- I don’t think that you would be able to fend them off.”  
  
“Yeah,” Shuichi admitted. “I know. I wasn’t out here alone at first. A search party came with me. My uncle wanted me to save you and look like the hero, and then we’d get married or something. Now that I think about it, I really, really don’t like the idea of marrying a total stranger… Not that you’re not beautiful! You are! And, I’m sure that you’re a nice person, too… It’s just…”

“Don’t worry about it!” she reassured him. “I feel the same way. I want to marry someone that I really know. But, what happened to your search party?”  
  
Shuichi shifted uncomfortably. “Well… I kind of sent them in the wrong direction… I just didn’t want them to see me try and fail. Everybody says that they don’t judge, but I know they do.”  
  
“I find it hard to believe you’d send off your only source of protection because you though they’d judge you,” Kaede deadpanned. “There must’ve been someone important in there, wasn’t there? Someone that you have to talk with on a daily basis?”  
  
Shuichi blinked. “You’re really perceptive. Uh… Yeah. You’re right. There’s this knight who’s been assigned to taking care of me since I was around eight and he was still in training. He always has to go where I go, this time included. I didn’t want him to see me be a total loser.” Suddenly, Shuichi broke into laughter. “Oh my God… When he finds out where I am he’s going to kill me. He’s literally going to kill me. He is actually going to stab me.”  
  
“Should I be concerned?” Kaede questioned, feeling worry discomfort swell within her. She genuinely didn’t know if he was being serious or not. With others he could make out jokes or sarcasm easily, but in his voice it all sounded the same.

“No,” he responded, finally settling down. “I don’t think so, at least.”  
  
“Well,” she began, “Mr. Hero… You’ve successfully gotten up here. I think it’s time for you bring me back down. I’m really grateful, by the way. I thought I’d be trapped up here until I died of dehydration…” She was finally leaving this awful tower. She couldn’t bare another minute of a place so uncomfortable and cold.

After a moment of silence, she continued, “You… You do know how to get down from here, right, Saihara-kun?”

Shuichi rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. “I don’t know. I didn’t think I’d get this far…”

“You’re kidding,” she deadpanned. Was he joking? He was up here, and he didn’t know how to get back down? Was he insane?

“Don’t be mad at me,” he pleaded. “I’m sorry! I just kind of rushed into this… I don’t know how to get down here with both of us at the same time. There’s no way I can support both of our weights.”  
  
“Okay.” Kaede took in a deep breath. “It’s fine. I’m not upset with you or anything. I… I just… Now we’re both in a bad situation, here. You shouldn’t have left the search party or the knight that was assigned to you. They’re both probably worried sick and now I am, too, because I’m afraid we’ll both die up here.”  
  
Shuichi sighed. “I’m really, really sorry. I just wanted to be the hero for once…”  
  
After a moment of mulling over what Shuichi had just said and comparing it to all that he’d revealed to her prior, she pieced together a theory. “Saihara-kun… Are you trying to impress the knight that you were talking about?”

Shuichi’s entire face turned an impossible shade of red. “Akamatsu-san! N-No, you’ve got it all wrong!”  
  
Kaede laughed. “It’s okay, really. There’s someone that I have that’s kind of like who you have. The head of my royal guard. She’s… amazing. And she’s probably searching for me right now. She’ll know what to do!” Ironically, Kaede had to be the one comforting Shuichi in this moment.

“And the search party will be looking to see where I’ve run off to,” Shuichi added on. “They’ll find me. Ouma-kun- er, I mean, my personal knight is usually extremely perceptive. I’m surprised that he didn’t catch my lie. Or… Maybe he knew something was off, but he knew that I was nervous and didn’t want to push it. I don’t know. I never really know with him.”  
  
“Well, Iruma-san, the head of my royal guard,” Kaede started, “is pretty perceptive, too. People say that she’s rude and arrogant, but that’s just what she lets other people see. The real her is much softer and sweeter. She’s a marvelous person… I just wish that other people could see that.”  
  
“That’s weird,” Shuichi commented. “That’s almost exactly how I would describe Ouma-kun.”

Kaede smiled at him. “We’re pretty similar, aren’t we? We should stay in touch after this. I’m not looking for a partner or anything right now, but I think it’d be nice to have a friend who I can relate to. There aren’t many people who you can do that with when you’re in the royal family, you know.”

"Trust me, I know.” Kaede let out a breathy laugh, and then he joined her. They laughed in unison.

There was a moment of blissful silence where they just stared at each other. All Kaede could think was, _I actually met someone like me who I don’t have to pretend to like._ Kaede knew that Shuichi was probably thinking something along the same lines.

That silence, however, was interrupted by, “Bakamatsu! You up there?!”

Kaede immediately ran over to look at the window. Standing there in her perfectly shined silver armor was none other Miu Iruma, exactly the girl she’d been waiting for. “Iruma-san!” she called out, her voice unable to mask her utter joy. “I’m so happy you’re here!”

Miu wasn’t alone, though. Directly next to her was a rather short boy with purple hair that poked out in all directions. “Akamatsu-chan, does my _beloved prince_ happen to be with you?” It was obvious that this knight knew that the answer was a yes, and that he was trying to lure Shuichi out to answer himself. This boy sounded absolutely livid. Was this boy the “Ouma-kun” that Shuichi had talked about?

“Oh, no,” Shuichi muttered. “He sounds angry. He’s almost never angry. Well… Not at me.”

“You can’t call her Akamatsu-chan!” Miu shouted at the other knight. “She’s a princess! Show her some respect, you ugly cuck!”  
  
“Shut the fuck up,” the knight responded easily. “You called her Bakamatsu, dumbass. And, I only worked with you so that I could find Saihara-chan, so don't talk to me.” The knight looked up at Kaede and grinned. “You’re Kaede Akamatsu, right? The missing princess? I’m Kokichi Ouma, and to be frank, I don’t care about you. Like, at all.”  
  
Kaede knew that she should be furious at being disrespected in such a way, but she only shrugged. “That’s fair. We don’t know each other.”

Shuichi sighed, finally standing up and taking a spot right next to Kaede where the knights could see him. “Hi, Ouma-kun.”

“This is the guy you went through hell and back to find?” Miu cackled. “Ha! He’s, like, a six.”

Kokichi kicked Miu in her knee. “First of all, he’s a ten, and you’re, like, a one. Also I think Akamatsu-chan is totally a nine and deserves better than you, and I don’t even know her.”

“Did you two work together to find us?” Kaede inquired.

"Yeah,” Miu answered. “He’s annoying as hell, but I don’t totally hate him. Maybe if he wasn’t so ugly we could get along better.”  
  
Kokichi stuck his tongue out at her. “Same to you! Anyway, we’re getting you two down from there, now. Iruma-chan is lucky that she’s so useful, or I might’ve killed her by now.”

“How are we getting out from here?” Shuichi asked.

“It’s easy,” Miu responded, “just jump.”

There was a moment of silence. And then, “You’re kidding.” It was the second time she’d said that today, but today wasn’t what you’d call a normal day.  
  
“I don’t think you’ll be able to catch me,” Shuichi told Kokichi.

“Don’t be stupid,” Kokichi scoffed. “You weigh, like, one pound. I’ll manage. Besides, what kind of knight can’t carry his own prince?”  
  
“No.” Shuichi shook his head. “If you don’t catch me, then I’ll die. I don’t want to die. There has to be a more reasonable way to get down. I can climb down, and Iruma-san can catch Akamatsu-san. It’s done.”  
  
“No fair!” Kokichi complained. “Why does Iruma-chan get to catch a princess but I don’t get to catch a prince? You have to jump, and I’m going to catch you.”  
  
But Shuichi was insistent. “No.”

“Saihara-kun,” Kaede spoke, “I’m still your friend all the way through, but I’m doing this so we can get this over with.” Kaede picked Shuichi up- and, wow, Kokichi was right, he was super light- and dropped him outside the window. Kokichi, a trained knight, caught him with ease.

“Hah!” Miu laughed. “Fuckin’ idiots. Alright, Kaediot, let’s ditch these losers. We have somewhere better to be.” Miu grinned at her. Kaede could feel her heart skip a beat just by looking at Miu in her uniform. Miu was an incredibly strong person, and Kaede was lucky to have someone as great as her in her life.

Kaede offered Miu her best smile, and leaped out of the window.

 

* * *

 

“I’m sorry,” Shuichi said for the hundredth time on their way back to their kingdom. Kokichi rolled his eyes.

“Yeah, I heard you loud and clear.” After a beat, he continued, “I was really worried about you. What if something happened to you? I wouldn’t have been able to do anything about it. I like to figure things out before people tell me, but for the love of whatever the hell is out there, I can’t figure out why you’d leave the search party.”  
  
Shuichi took in a deep breath. “To tell the truth, Ouma-kun, I did it to impress you. You’re always the one saving me and protecting me… I just wanted to be the hero for once. I thought that maybe then you wouldn’t think I was such a loser.”

After a long moment, Kokichi said, “A loser? Okay, yeah, you’re a loser, but so am I. Shuichi, we’ve known each other for almost ten years now. I know you. And I like you. You don’t need to do anything for me. I’m protecting you because I care about you, and I don’t want anything to happen to you just because you’re afraid that I don’t think that you’re a hero. You don’t need to be a hero. I don’t want to protect a hero, because heroes don’t need to be protected. I just… Ew, this sounds cheesy. Nevermind.”  
  
Shuichi nudged him, smiling. “Say it.”  
  
“No.”

“Say it!”  
  
“Fine, fine!” Kokichi relented. “I just want you. If something had happened to you… God, I don’t know what I would have done.”

“I think this is the most that you’ve been honest to me at once in our entire time together,” Shuichi told him. “And it’s been, like, four minutes.”  
  
Kokichi reached out for Shuichi’s hand, who returned the gesture. Their fingers intertwined.

“You called me by my first name,” Shuichi said suddenly. “A few minutes ago. You… called me by my first name.”

“Yeah, so?” Kokichi asked. “Like I said, we’ve known each other for almost ten years. Don’t you think it’s time to drop the dumb honorifics and just… I don’t know. Call each other by our first names.”  
  
The corners of Shuichi’s mouth lift up just the slightest bit. “Yeah. Okay. Uh… Kokichi.”  
  
“Hey, Shuichi?” Kokichi spoke up. “If you had saved Akamatsu-chan and returned her to her parents… Would you have really married her?”  
  
“No,” Shuichi answered her. “I don’t know her that well. I don’t think I could ever marry a stranger. I want to be with someone I’ve known for a long time.”  
  
Kokichi stopped walking, and Shuichi followed suite. “What about someone you’ve known for almost ten years?”  
  
Shuichi’s laugh was small and quiet. “Yeah. That’d work.”  
  
There was a long, horrible moment of quiet. And then, “Is that a yes? ‘Cause, like, isn’t there this whole courting thing involved first?”  
  
“I think we’ve been kind of doing that without even realizing it,” Shuichi admitted. “Almost ten years… I think we know what we’re doing. Maybe we’re young, but if I’m old enough to marry a stranger then I’m old enough to marry you.”

Kokichi grinned at him. “Are you sure? I could be lying!” Kokichi’s grin faltered a bit. “Um… What will your uncle think? He’s kind of, like, y’know, king. He’s the only person who could stop us.”  
  
“He loves me more than he loves tradition,” Shuichi assured him. “You know that. He’ll be fine.”  
  
“You sure Akamatsu-chan won’t be upset that I stole her man?” Kokichi joked.

“I think Akamatsu-san has a thing for her knight,” Shuichi told him. “And, frankly, so do I.”

 

* * *

 

“Who the hell would be stupid enough to kidnap someone like you?” Miu questioned, pacing around in Kaede’s room. “The investigative team in on it. When they find the culprit I’m going to go over there and kill them myself.”

“Calm down, Iruma-san,” Kaede tried to reason. “I’m back now, and that’s what matters, right?”  
  
“What if it happens again?” Miu hissed. “Don’t be a fucking idiot. I’m not letting anything happen to you ever again.”  
  
“If I didn’t know you better I’d say that you were worried,” Kaede teased.

“You do know me better,” Miu began, “and that’s why you know that I was worried. You’re a goddamn idiot if you think that I don’t care about you. I wouldn’t give up until I found you. I… I just…”

“Shh,” Kaede hushed, standing up from her bed and making her way over to Miu. “I’m here now.” She began rubbing circles into Miu’s back. “It’s all okay, now. It won’t happen again, because the investigative team is going to figure everything out. You don’t need to worry!”  
  
“Like hell I don’t need to worry!” Miu snapped, moving away from Kaede. “I know I didn’t act like it, but do you know how relieved I was when I found you? And you were in a tower. A fucking _tower_. What kind of sicko does that?”  
  
“I don’t know,” Kaede admitted. “But, you’ll stay with me, right?” Miu nodded. “Then there’s nothing to worry about.”

“Still, how did that useless prince find you before me?” Miu demanded.  
  
“Well,” Kaede started, “he said something about a red-haired… Oh, wait. What’s this?” Kaede walked over to her desk to pick up a letter. “This wasn’t here before...” Kaede opened the tightly sealed envelope to take out a letter that said:

_Dear Princess Kaede Akamatsu,_

_Uh… Sorry. I was trying to cast a magic spell to levitate objects, but something went really, really wrong, and you ended up in that tower. I still have a long way to go before I’m the greatest mage to ever exist, but I’m getting there. And, congratulations, you taught me how to not cast that curse! So, anyway, I sent that prince guy over there to help you out. The princesses always want the prince, right? Or maybe I should’ve sent another princess… If that’s the case, then super duper sorry. Anyway, I apologize for the inconvenience or whatever. I’m too tired to be formal._

_Sincerely,_

_a mage who will not disclose her name because then the royal guard will come and find her_

_(P.S. If the your knights do find me, then they better beware because I have a badass girlfriend who’s trained in Neo-Aikido, and she can kick their asses.)_

“Oh,” Kaede said simply, before handing the letter to Miu. So, this was the mage that Shuichi told her about? She seemed relatively harmless. Kaede had heard of people practicing magic in these regions, but this was the first time anything like this had occurred around this area.

“She’s smart for not telling us her name,” Miu muttered, “but I’ll kick her and her assistant’s ass! They’ll rue the day they messed with you.”  
  
“They didn’t mean to,” Kaede defended them, albeit it was a poor defense.

“They didn’t mean to?” Miu echoed. “They still did it! You can’t commit murder and then say that you didn’t mean to. Once you do something, it’s done. Over.”

Miu was always stubborn, but Kaede wished that they could just get over it. They had no way of finding this mage, and even if they did, she didn’t want someone who made a mistake to be jailed for it. People often told her that she was too compassionate, but in her opinion there was no such thing. As long as she wasn’t gullible or easy to manipulate she didn’t see a problem.

“Let’s forget about that for a few minutes,” Kaede pleaded. “Just… Can you lie down with me? For just a few minutes?”  
  
Miu blinked. “You want to fuck? Is that what you’re asking?”

“No,” Kaede rejected the idea. “I just want to lie down with you. I… You’re an amazing person to me, Miu. I don’t want to think about what it would’ve been like if I had died in that tower. I just want you to distract me for a little bit.”

“So you want to fuck,” Miu repeated. Kaede rolled her eyes.

“I want to talk with you,” Kaede told her firmly. “I… Geez, do I really have to say this? I like you as more than a friend. A lot more. I admire you more than you could ever know. Will you be my girlfriend?”  
  
“Oh,” Miu said, quiet. “I… I am a gorgeous girl genius, but… I think you could do better than me. I’m nothing when compared to you. You… You’re a princess. You need to find someone who’s… I don’t fucking know. Worthy of you.”

“That’s stupid,” Kaede told her, voice strong. “You’re beautiful, and strong, and smart… I want someone like you to be by my side. Someone I can trust. Can I trust you, Miu Iruma?”  
  
Miu only nodded.

“Then there’s nothing left to say,” Kaede whispered, leaning in close to Miu. “I want you to be my girlfriend. Are you going to turn down a princess?”

“I-I guess not,” Miu muttered. “Ah… Who knew you could be so smooth, Bakamatsu? I… Fuck, I’m lucky to have you.”  
  
Kaede grinned. “We’re both lucky. You know, since I was in a tower all day, I think it’s only fair that you do one thing for me since we weren’t together all day long.”  
  
Normally, Miu would argue against this, but right now Miu only said, “What is it?”  
  
Kaede leaned in just the slightest bit closer, and whispered, “Kiss me.”

**Author's Note:**

> hello guess who's a sucker for irumatsu, saiouma, and saimatsu friendship? me. they're all useless children and i love them.
> 
> all comments and kudos are appreciated!!


End file.
